The NIHnet Extranet Site-To-Site VPN Service serves as a vehicle for NIH personnel, mainframes, and servers to exchange information and data securely with NIH business partners, associates, and other external entities. The NIH Extranet DMZ also provides hosting services to other agencies and business partners. Hosted servers or applications would be located logically just outside of the NIH perimeter but still be protected from the Internet by the Extranet DMZ firewalls. ​

Customer Benefits

The NIH Extranet DMZ uses Extranet site-to-site VPN technology that is considered secure enough to support HIPAA or other sensitive data.The NIHnet Extranet Site-To-Site VPN Service uses site-to-site VPN technology that is considered secure enough to support HIPAA or other sensitive data.

Customer Market

All NIH ICs.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the NIHnet Extranet Site-To-Site VPN Service?

A. The NIHnet Extranet Site-To-Site VPN Service allows NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) to share sensitive information with external vendors, business partners, agencies, and other entities via a secure encrypted link across the commodity Internet. The encrypted link allows external entities to communicate with servers internal to NIH and users within NIH to access servers external to NIH. Unlike Remote Access VPN, the encrypted link is up at all times and requires no user authentication.

Q. How do I know if I need the NIHnet Extranet Site-To-Site VPN Service?

A. The most pertinent qualification for Site-to-Site VPN is the necessity for a resource to be available at all times and that data is transferred on a regular basis between NIH and an external entity. If you are unsure, please don't hesitate to contact CIT via the NIH IT Service Desk via the WEB: http://itservicedesk.nih.gov/support/or you may call 301-496-4357 (local), 866-319-4357 (toll-free), or 301-496-8294 (TTY). CIT will work with you to determine the best option for your network communication needs.

Q. I know we need The NIHnet Extranet Site-to-Site Service for a connection with an external entity. What steps should I take?

A. Contact the NIH IT Service Desk to make a request for a new NIHnet Extranet Site-To-Site VPN connection to your external partner. CIT will contact you with a request for more specific information. This will allow CIT to begin the process of designing the link between your IC and the external entity. Your IC’s ISSO office should contact the OD/CIO office to begin the process of negotiating an Interconnection Security Agreement (ISA) (http://ocio.nih.gov/nihsecurity/isa_faqs.htm) between the external entity and the NIH IC governing the operation of the VPN link.